Leadership for Intelligence Professionals   

Views on Balancing Leadership and Management from the Business World

In the business community there has been one strong advocate for “doing it all”.  That has been Larry Bossidy the (now-retired) Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell.  When asked in an interview; “Many CEOs delegate execution [management] to the chief operating officer [COO]...Isn’t that one solution?” He responded;

I don’t believe in this CEO-COO concept. It divides the left brain from the right brain...If you are trying to groom leaders...You want to breed people with both capabilities...CEOs must be involved in execution, not just strategy.

When it was pointed out by the interviewer that “CEOs  are supposed to be thinking big thoughts about strategy.  How can they do that if they don't delegate the grunt work of day-to-day execution to line managers?” To that Bossidy responded;

You certainly have to be a strategist, but you better make sure you're involved in the orchestration, implementation of strategy as well. If you don't and it doesn't succeed, you're toast....[but] Micromanaging is to be avoided at all costs.

Since retirement, Bossidy has written a book in which he further emphasizes the need for the CEO to also function as the COO. 

People think of execution as the tactical side of the business, something leaders delegate while they focus on bigger issues.  This idea is completely wrong.

Others seem to generally agree.  David Allen advocates that the role of an organizational Leader is to “Make it Happen”.

Most Leaders focus on framing the vision, crafting the purpose, capturing and communicating the “spirit” of the organization. Actually getting things done is left to managers and front line workers. In fact, some leaders fail to see that making things happen is their job.

On the other hand Lee Iococca former CEO of Chrysler seems to advocate a focus on Leadership and a hands off approach to management: “Management  is easy; select the good people and set the right priorities.”        

-Interview Published in USA Today 10 June 2002.

-Larry Bossidy with Ram Charan and Charles Buruk , Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.

-David Allen, “Make it Happen” in Leadership Excellence March 2006.

-Lee Iococca with Christine Whiting, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Examples of Some Who Have Tried to “Do it All”

 Douglas Ivester of Coca Cola

Professor Michael Watkins of Harvard Business School has pointed out that Douglas Ivester failed as the CEO of Coca Cola because when he was elevated to CEO he failed to let go of his former COO focus on day-to-day operations and acted like a "super COO" instead of a "strategic CEO".

-Michael Watkins,  The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at all Levels

Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard

According to the business press the reason for the forced resignation of the high-profile female CEO, Carly Fiorina, from Hewlett-Packard in early 2005 was that she “apparently resisted suggestions that she hire a chief operating officer who could have helped her cope with the details...and so execution has been inconsistent.”   According to Jefferey A. Sonnenfeld, associate dean of the Yale School of Management:  “This was someone who was planning for the year beyond tomorrow [the role of a Leader] and was not immersed in the here and now [the role of a manager]”, as she had to be because she was also acting as COO.   An analyst, A. M. Sacconaghi, said “They were clearly looking for better leadership, as defined by better execution....I don't think her particular strengths were operations-focused.”  Thus, “In 2005, the board fired her and hired Mark Hurd, a disciplined operations type, to focus on execution rather than vision.  The verdict on Mr. Hurd is that he has skillfully executed the strategy of his flamboyant predecessor.  The verdict on that predecessor, Ms Fiorina, has also improved.  Her idea was controversial, but apparently right.”

So, all is well that ends well for HP, now the world’s biggest PC maker.  But, it could have ended well for Ms Fiorina as well if she had just hired Mr. Hurd or someone like him as COO and delegated execution to him rather than trying to be a leader-manager and do it all herself.

-Quotes from the Economist and USAToday respectively in 2005 and Economist  May 17, 2008.